Retelling the 1986 Chernobyl disaster is an exercise in unburying the truth.

The world's worst nuclear power plant accident forced the city of Pripyat, in what was then part of the Soviet Union, to evacuate after being exposed to toxic levels of radiation. In its wake, Soviet officials publicly downplayed the incident. To this day, scientists are still working to understand the effects of the fatal explosion.

What we do know is that the core of a nuclear reactor opened, sending plumes of radioactive material into the air. The toxic fumes not only contaminated the local vegetation and water supply but also poisoned nearby residents, some of whom went on to develop cancer.

Within three months of the disaster, more than 30 people had died of acute radiation sickness.

"We can only estimate the real effects on people's lives," said Jan Haverkamp, a senior nuclear energy expert at Greenpeace, who noted the catastrophe most likely had a severe impact on hundreds of thousands of people.

"I always defaulted to the less dramatic because the things that we know for sure happened are so inherently dramatic," he told Variety's "TV Take" podcast.

The miniseries earned 19 Emmy nominations, including in the Outstanding Limited Series category, in which it's considered a frontrunner. The award show will be held Sunday, September 22.

For the most part, it's hauntingly accurate — with the exception of a few artistic liberties. We fact-checked some of the major plot points from the series to determine what's true and what verges on myth.

Note: This article contains spoilers of episodes one through five.

MYTH: The Chernobyl fire gave off nearly twice the radiation of Hiroshima every hour.

Liam Daniel/HBO

Both Chernobyl and the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II were catastrophic nuclear disasters. But Haverkamp said it's difficult to compare the radiation exposure of the two events.

With Hiroshima, he said, the major health impact was caused by direct exposure to radiation. When a nuclear bomb explodes, he said, a person's radiation dose is determined by the person's distance from the point of exposure.

In Chernobyl, he said, "a lot of radioactive material was brought into the atmosphere." The material, he added, was then "spread over a very large area" and ingested by people over a long period of time.

FACT: The Soviets tried to use robots to clean the contamination site but eventually resorted to human labor.

Liam Daniel/HBO

In a horrifying scene in episode four, men throw blocks of radioactive graphite off the roof of the power plant — what the series calls "the most dangerous place on earth." In real life, the men were asked to clear 100 tons of radioactive debris from the area.

At a conference in 1990, the official who oversaw the cleanup efforts, Yuri Semiolenko, said the Soviets had initially tried to clear the site with remote-controlled robots. When the machines started breaking down in the toxic atmosphere, officials resorted to human labor.

Though advanced US robots could have aided the decontamination, tensions between the two countries dissuaded Ukraine from asking for help.